#dont be scared rafal doesn't bite ( too hard )

[rafent]

[ AWKWARD ]: after a particularly rough first encounter, the sender meets the receiver again, and awkwardly greets them with more than a touch of embarrassment.

Though they had not really met previously, that scarcely changed the awkward tint to the greeting Alfonse offered. In truth, he partially expected Rafal to just keep walking and ignore him entirely. He was aware of the Fell Dragon, but that was essentially the extent of his knowledge. He couldn't be satisfied with that. Alfonse needed to know more, especially when Rafal seemed such a pivotal figure in the history of his world.

So Alfonse reached out with a small greeting, but his voice wavered as he did. Confidence fled him as soon as he gazed upon the Fell Dragon's visage. Rafal's dour expression was cause enough for hesitation already, making it feel as though any attempt to speak to him would be bothersome more than anything else. Nel had only spoken of Rafal on occasion, but she made him sound far kinder than the man Alfonse saw before him now.

"Ah... h-hey," Alfonse finally managed to repeat, swallowing his concerns as best he could. "You wouldn't happen to enjoy pastries, would you? I fear I made a few too many of them..."

...They were probably a bit cold by now, actually. He'd planned this little ploy well in advance, but he'd spent too much time waffling over whether or not he ought to go through with it. That made the gesture all the more transparent, he feared.

"Who is asking."

Who the hell are you—where such an uncouth phrase shirked the dragon's tongue in its entirety, its emphatic effect resounded the same. Rafal turned to eye the source of a quivering voice; sharp distrust inhospitable as winter storm, bluntness dry as desert gale, and natural barrier both which deterred the approach of others. Whatever force had possessed this young man to make his greetings then might as well have been a buster against all sense of life preservation.

Fortunately, he was in a patient mood.

"I do in fact—oddly well-informed though your wager. I cannot say that my first meeting with anyone has ever involved them making such a convenient offering." Far too aptly tailored an opportunity between strangers. The Rafal of yesterday may have thought slightly better of such convenience. The better versed - and more wizened - Rafal of today held his reasonable reservations.

He was not especially keen to accept someone's first time offering, to say the least. A shiver coursed down the knobs of his spine in recollection of the last occasion. . .and its recency. Ghost pepper did not belong on a cake. Who knew what other forms of edible ambush lie in wait by the hands of those least known and expected? Snowy locks swayed on shaking head. Ahem, back to present.

"The impression of me as a means of waste disposal for your excess sweets is offensive. But if the alternative is throwing them away, then I might agree to taking them." The caveat all too hasty: "Provided there are no spicy cakes involved."